Social media is critical for marketing, and the fitness industry is particularly fond of it. Posting images, videos, and captions or blog entries are excellent ways to share information about exercise and nutrition. If you are a personal trainer, instructor, or other fitness professional, how do you know if you are using social media as effectively as possible? Executing a strategy entails more work than many people realize. Athlete, biochemistry student, and entrepreneur Cody Moxam of codymoxam.com has some advice to share regarding how fitness professionals can leverage social media channels for their businesses:
Produce intriguing content
The most important thing you can do is produce compelling content. Without it, people have no reason to follow you. Even if your username or profile picture catches someone’s eye, why would they click the “follow” button if there is nothing exciting to keep up with? You can post videos about your workout routine, what your space looks like, photos of your favorite recipes, and more.
It’s also helpful to post about the health field as a whole. Author and personal trainer Nardia Norman, for instance, found success on social media because she talks about more than training and workout plans. According to Grace Phillips of Timely:
“Instead, she talks about the responsibilities of a personal trainer and the shortcomings of the fitness industry. As an expert in her field, she focuses on debunking myths around fitness and health, critiquing the industry that she loves. Nardia doesn’t just want to sell a particular type of exercise or wellness: she wants people to understand how to care for themselves, and more importantly, why.”
Nardia provides her followers with value. Followers and customers should overlap, but they are not interchangeable, so she offers other internet users with reasons to keep themselves updated with her content.
Be an expert
It also pays to be an expert in a specific niche. People turn to experts before they turn to generalists, even if the questions they have are not specialized. If you know all there is to know about a particular subject, though, then you build both your authority and legitimacy, which inclines social media users to trust you. Being an expert that shares helpful content establishes you as a resource, and people will put two and two together that you are where they should take their business.
Interact with your followers
Another essential practice: interact with your followers. Do you enjoy following accounts that post content and beg for likes, or do you enjoy when they acknowledge you and make you feel appreciated? Instead of ignoring your followers, respond to their comments, answer their questions, and like their posts. It’s also an excellent idea to re-share user-generated content, so if anybody tags you in an image, tweets about you, or participates in a challenge or contest that you host, asking their permission to repost is an efficient way of expressing your appreciation.
Engaging with your followers also helps build a community. People will be more inclined to like and comment on your posts if there is a higher chance of you acknowledging them in return. When you bring people together around an interest to promote celebration and discussion, you have an opportunity to encourage them to engage with each other as well as yourself—and people will be more likely to tell their peers about you if they believe they have found a sense of community that they have searched for.
Use the right hashtags
Hashtags are one of the chief techniques social media users employ to put their content in front of broader audiences. If you tweet something without hashtags, only your current followers are likely to see it. With hashtags, though, you make your content “discoverable,” which means anyone on the platform can find your tweet if it pertains to their interests. Once people can stumble across your content without having to look too hard, you’re more likely to experience an increase in followers.
Reveal your personality
As a fitness professional, clients need to be comfortable and confident when working with you. Social media is one of your chances to showcase your personality before anybody meets you: are you energetic? Compassionate? Encouraging? If you rub people the wrong way, or do not reveal any sense of character at all, then potential clients will avoid you. Improving one’s physical fitness is emotionally intensive work, so people want to know if you would work well together.
Platforms like Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, Snapchat, and LinkedIn are all convenient places to reach people, but expanding your reach necessitates a significant amount of work. If you are a fitness professional, how will you reach potential clients and followers on social media?
